What occupies our geeky minds

A sneak peek at our XNA Kinect App we built for Gun Communications and their client Mattel. This was an early version of the app with a few things left to polish.

The technical solution consisted of a custom-made application using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio combined with the Kinect for Windows hardware and software development kit (SDK). The user interacts with the application through a natural gesture and overlay interface, augmented with audio and visual cues. Skeletal tracking is used to determine the position and orientation of the user and various Barbie™ outfits are rescaled and rendered over the user in real time. After selecting an outfit the user is prompted to strike a pose, and after a short countdown the resulting postcard-style photo is uploaded to a Pyramid-powered web server. All approved images (users aged 13+ only with guardian consent) can then displayed in a gallery section of the Barbie® Australian Facebook page.

The app will be launched at a media event in Sydney on April 11, 2012. A series of public events will then be executed at Westfield centres during school holidays, commencing at Westfield Parramatta (NSW April 12 – 15), Westfield Doncaster (VIC June 28 – July 1), and Westfield Chermside (QLD Sept 27 – 30).